Friday Fan Art (I.O.U. #1)
TGIF! What a week in DiTerlizziland! I have been up to my eyeballs in creating the artwork for the Spiderwick finale, The Wyrm King. As I continue my drawing/inking warm-ups for each day’s session, I have been rendering some fun stuff that is looong overdue to some of my friends – including this pen & ink art trade with Dinotopia demigod, James Gurney.
Jim rendered a super-cool piece for the upcoming Spiderwick Chronicles Completely Fantastical Edition – which (as I’ve mentioned before) contains the first five books, lost chapters from Holly, a sketchbook from yours truly, and a SICK art gallery by some of my drawin’ pals. Jim said I could have his submission for a trade, and (of course) I jumped at the opportunity.
I went back to the original Dinotopia and found a nice vignette of the hero, Will, meeting Bix, the benevolent protoceratops. I wanted to do my take on this scene, mainly because I would LOVE to be in Will’s shoes. (And, also, because the idea of becoming friends with a dinosaur is not too far removed from becoming friends with a creature of the faerie realm).
What got me juiced was re-interpreting the dinosaur and incorporating some of the current theories linking dinos to birds. So that is the place that I went to for my reference. I cracked open Dr. David Norman’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, which had reconstructions of the protoceratops, but (more importantly) had a very detailed line-drawing of the skeleton – a structure to build upon.
Immediately, I thought exotic parrots in the rainforest…or even prairie chickens found in the western U.S.. Right away, I knew Bix was going to be feathered.
I sketched Will up on a second sheet of paper and composited the two sketches in Photoshop. This is great for sizing and moving around the figures. I even adjusted the balance of Bix by straightening his left leg to hold his weight.
I transferred the 11×14″ sketch onto Strathmore plate 2-ply bristol using my light table, refined the pencil lines, and inked it up using FW inks and a Hunts 102 nib. I even gave it the trademark Spiderwick dual-border (which I outline with a ruler and pencil, then ink freehand.)
I hope you like it Jim, I’ll have to blop some watercolor on a print out at some point…unless someone out there is really good at digital coloring…
PS – Update! Jim posted his image (of Hogsqueal riding on Bix) on his site. He even included a little video of himself inking the piece…check it out!
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ooohhh…
Mary
Mr. Tony,
Do you have any information on where you and Holly will be going for the FINAL spiderwick tour?
Dylan
We’ll be touring throughout September with tentative stops in San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Cincinnati and Chicago…more details as I get them Dylan.
Being a massive fan of Dinotopia and your art I must say I lOVED that!
I know you live in Mass. will you be touring around Amherst, maybe at the Eric Carle Museum?
I think we’ll do the Odyssey this time Gabe, at some point this fall. Its a great store if you haven’t been yet…
Heck of a clever collaboration.
Bix with feathers. I like the picture.
But as a true Dinotopian fan I have to comment on your text.
You wrote: “….balance of Bix by straightening his left leg to hold his weight.”
Bix is a female protoceratops !
Not only are you correct Chris, but I knew this when I was rendering it. I was thinking the males would have a much more impressive feather frill for attracting mates…thanks for the correction.
Hi Tony, I really like your work and hope that this interests you and your readers.
I am attempting to amass a large collection of portraits of Frankenstein’s Monster in as many different styles and in as many different media as possible as an ongoing art project. The only stipulation is that the size is 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches (standard artist trading card size) and that each card has name, date, location, title and anything else you care to add on the back.
I welcome cards from both amateur and professional artists.
I will be leaving blank cards with instructions and mailing address in galleries, colleges, art shops, on buses, handing them out in the street and wherever else I can think of.
If you think you can spare the time to produce a little something, please send a portrait to:
A Patchwork Of Flesh
45 Silversea Drive
Westcliff on Sea
Essex
SS0 9XD
United Kingdom
Each card I receive will be uploaded at http://apatchworkofflesh.blogspot.com/ to produce an on-line gallery, I then hope to put on an exhibition of these cards in a gallery.
Cool idea Coop,
I get requests like this in my PO box on a fairly regular basis, so this is not unusual for me. However, because I am so busy, send me a SASE with a blank card if you really want a doodle from me. I’ll even post it here on the blog to boot.
Good luck!
Hi Tony, thanks a lot. Where can I find your address and I will send a blank card, if you are in the US though I can’t send a SASE because I am in the UK. I can refund your postage via Paypal if that helps. Please let me know, Coop.
My addy is on my site under ABOUT:
Tony DiTerlizzi
PO Box 442
Amherst, MA 01004
love the illustrations and this whole blog.
I wanted to let you know that protoceratops was drawn by Ed Heck, former scientific illustrator at AMNH.
: )